Prayer, Penance and the Eucharist Are
Principal Sources of Spirituality for Married Couples

Pope John Paul II

GENERAL AUDIENCE OF WEDNESDAY, 3 OCTOBER [1984]

At the general audience on Wednesday morning, 3 October, Pope John
Paul II resumed his series of talks on marriage, speaking of the
spirituality of married couples. Following is our translation of his
address.

Referring to the doctrine contained in the Encyclical Humanae
Vitae, we will try to further outline the spiritual life of married
couples. Here are the great words of this encyclical:

"While the Church does indeed hand on to her children the inviolable
conditions laid down by God's law, she is also the herald of salvation.
Through the sacraments she flings wide open the channels of grace
through which man is made a new creature responding in charity and true
freedom to the design of his Creator and Savior, experiencing too the
sweetness of the yoke of Christ.

"In humble obedience then to her voice, let Christian husbands and wives
be mindful of their vocation to the Christian life, a vocation which,
deriving from their Baptism, has been confirmed anew and made more
explicit by the sacrament of Matrimony. For by this sacrament they
are strengthened and, one might also say, consecrated to the
faithful fulfillment of their duties; to realizing to the full their
vocation; and to bearing witness, as becomes them, to Christ before the
world. For the Lord has entrusted to them the task of making visible to
men and women the holiness, and the joy too, of the law which unites
inseparably their love for one another and the cooperation they give to
God's love, God who is the Author of human life" (Humanae Vitae
25).

Morally evil act

2. By showing the moral evil of the contraceptive act and by
outlining at the same time a possibly integral framework for the honest
practice of fertility regulation, that is, of responsible fatherhood and
motherhood, the Encyclical Humanae Vitae creates the premises
that allow us to draw the great lines of the Christian spirituality
of the conjugal vocation and life, and likewise the spirituality of
parents and of the family.

It can further be said that the encyclical presupposes the entire
tradition of this spirituality, which is rooted in the biblical sources
already analyzed, by offering the opportunity to reflect on them anew
and to build an adequate synthesis.

It is well to recall here what was said about the organic relationship
between the theology of the body and the pedagogy of the body. This
"theology-pedagogy" already constitutes per se the essential nucleus of
conjugal spirituality. This is indicated also by the above-quoted
sentences from the encyclical.

Integral intention

3. Anyone would certainly read and interpret the Encyclical
Humanae Vitae erroneously who would see in it only the
reduction of responsible fatherhood and motherhood to mere "biological
rhythms of fertility". The author of the encyclical energetically
disapproves of and contradicts any form of reductive interpretation (and
in such a "partial" sense), and insistently reproposes the integral
intention. Responsible fatherhood and motherhood, understood
integrally, is none other than an important element of all conjugal
and family spirituality,
that is, of that vocation which the cited text of Humanae
Vitae speaks about when it states that the married couple must
"realize to the full their vocation" (HV 25). The sacrament of
marriage strengthens them and, one would say, consecrates them to its
fulfillment (cf. HV 25).

In the light of the doctrine expressed in the encyclical, it is well to
become more aware of that strengthening power that is united to the "sui
generis consecration" of the sacrament of marriage.

Since the analysis of the ethical problem of Paul VI's document was
centered above all on the exactness of the respective norm, the
sketch of conjugal spirituality which is found there intends to place in
relief precisely those "powers" which make possible the authentic
Christian witness of married life.

Difficulties present

4. "We have no wish at all to pass over in silence the difficulties,
at times very great, which beset the lives of Christian married couples.
For them, as indeed for every one of us, the gate is narrow and the way
is hard that leads to life (cf. Mt 7:14). Nevertheless, it is
precisely the hope of that life which, like a brightly burning torch,
lights up their journey, as, strong in spirit, they strive to live
sober, upright and godly lives in this world (cf. Ti 2:12), knowing for
sure that 'the form of this world is passing away'" (cf. 1 Cor 7:31) (HV
25).

In the encyclical, the view of married life is marked at every step by
Christian realism. Precisely this helps more greatly to acquire those
"powers" which allow the formation of the spirituality of married
couples and parents in the spirit of an authentic pedagogy of heart and
body.

The awareness of that future life opens up a broad horizon of those
powers that must guide them through the hard way (cf. HV 25)
and lead them through the narrow gate (cf. HV 25) of their
evangelical vocation.

The encyclical says: "For this reason husbands and wives should take up
the burden appointed to them, willingly, in the strength of faith and of
that hope which does not disappoint us, because God's love has been
poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to
us" (cf. Rom 5:5) (HV 25).

By the Holy Spirit

5. Here is the essential and fundamental "power": the love
planted in the heart ("poured out into our hearts") by the Holy
Spirit. Consequently, the encyclical points out how the married couple
must implore this essential power and every other divine help by prayer;
how they must draw grace and love from the ever-living fountain of the
Eucharist; how "with humble perseverance" they must overcome their
deficiencies and sins in the Sacrament of Penance.

These are the means—infallible
and indispensable—for
forming the Christian spirituality of married life and family life. With
these, that essential and spiritual creative power of love
reaches human hearts and, at the same time, human bodies in their
subjective masculinity and femininity. This love allows the building of
the whole life of the married couple according to that "truth of the
sign", by means of which marriage is built up in its sacramental
dignity, as the central point of the encyclical reveals (cf. HV
12).

Taken from:
L'Osservatore Romano
Weekly Edition in English
8 October 1984, page 1

L'Osservatore Romano is the newspaper of the Holy See.
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